Improvement in fare-boxes



UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE SAMUEL L. PHILLIPS, OF WASHINGTON, DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA.

IMPROVEMENT IN FARE-Boxes.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 154,899, dated September 8, 1874; application led February 23, 1874. l

To all whom it may concern Be it known that I, SAMUEL L. PHILLIPS, of Washington City, District of Columbia, have invented an Improved Fare-Box for Cars, Stages, &c.; and I do hereby declare that the following is a description oi the invention, and of the manner and process of making, constructing, and using the same, that will enable any person skilled in the art with which it is most nearly connected to make, construct, and use the same. Y l My invention consists in the use of two plates of metal or other suitable substance, each sliding in. parallel horizontal grooves by means of a lever attached to each plate, and moving simultaneously to each other, and with respect to an orifice in the top ofthe box for the reception of fares, and to another orice below for release of fares, to a nal receptacle, so that at all times there r"shall be interposed one or the other of these sliding plates between the place where the fare is deposited by the passenger and this iinal receptacle'fr the accumulated fares; and, in combina'tion with this, a hopper with swinging doors, each the full size of the exit from the hopper, as allA of which is shown in the annexed drawings.

A spring is attached to the top plate, by which the solid parts of it, while at rest, is always kept immediately below the opening for the reception-of fares, and the parallel plate below removed in consequence beyond the opening made by two guides and Scrapers, thus leaving, while at rest, this bottom orifice always open. The spring might, with equal efficiency, be attached to the lower plate. The effect of this simple device is, that when the thumb-piece is shoved to its butt the opening through the top plate is brought immediately under the mouth for the reception of the fare, which instantly falls tothe bottom plate, which latter has already slid over the opening, and is there retained for inspection or not, only as long as the thumb, by pressure, overcomes the expansive power of the spring; The instant the thumbis removed, the pressure "of the spring drives back, operating through the lever, the lower plate to its original position, thus leaving clear the lower orifice on which the fare rested,"and which fare, retaining its position by the scraper, falls by its own weight through the hopper nd doors into the box below. This same act 'I has simultaneously driven the solid part 'he upper plate immediately under the o ing in the box for the reception of fares. When once the fare is in this bottom compartment, all view and access are cut oii' by one or the other intervening plates, and it, either money or tickets, cannot get back into the space between the two sliding plates, though the box be turned or shaken in any manner, in consequence of the double doors attached to the exit of the hopper closing before the fare has reached the mouth of this exit. By these simple and inexpensive means, the nal receptacle, where the accumulated fares are deposited, is absolutely protected from all embezzlements, and the one fare whichv is at the moment received is only kept from descending to this bottom by the continued pressure ofthe thumb and lnonopolization of the entire hand. If, from any cause, this inconvenient eii'ort to maintain the fare on the second plate be relaxed but for a moment, that instant the fare descends and is irrecoverably lost to all who have not access by key to the bottom compartment.

The principle of protecting the final receptacle for fares from peculation by forming an intermediate compartment, as M, and interposing some obstacle at all times between the mouth of the box and the bottom, is to be found in patents long since expired, but the mechanical contrivance here adopted, or any of its equivalents, has never been suggested, and it is in this simple and economical combi nation, which is not liable to derangement and will lastas long as the materials of which it is made, and at the same time presenting a more perfect obstacle to all abstraction of fares, that originality of invention is claimed.

The principle of the hopper is also not new. existing in boxes for letters, and for which no patent exists; but it is to the apt and appropriate combination that it forms with the preceding combination, and which renders this preceding combination of peculiar value in its adaptation to a portable fare-box, that origof wood, metal, or other suitable materials,

either solid, or it may have glass in the sides, between the two plates above described, for the inspection of the fare. For the fractional currency of the present day it should be at least eight inches in length by four and a half inches on the sides, and three anda halfinches in front. For tickets or coupons it may be made yet smaller. The mouth A should be three-eighths or' an inch in width by one and a half inch in. length. Below this is a tube, of metal, fjf, attached to a metallic basket, C, having a g-Lfio e in for the horizontal sliding of the pheggg in Figs. 1 and 2. To this plate iached the rod D, with thumb-piece h and f est-price l, or it maybe cast as one piece. represents the spring. To this top plate, if apat of it, is attached a transverse arm, n, in Fig. 2, to which a lever, E, is attached at flic ends, a in Fig. 1, a a in Fig. 2. The lr-ver works upon its pivot at b. This point .s found by drawing lines through a and a', n and nf, and m and m. The point of intersection of these three lines will give the pivot-point of the lever that will cause the open part m n of the upper plate, g g g in Fig. l or Q in Fig. 2, to move, while lower plate c c c, attached to the longer arm of the lever, will move from r 'n' to a. m', thus completely covering the aperture L before any part of the open part Q in Fig. 2 of the top plate has reached the opening A in Fig. l. The continuation of the pushing of the thumbpiece D will next bring the openin g Q in Fig. 2 directly under the aperture Ain Fig. l; but, in so do- 5 g g g and c c, each sliding in horizontal paring, the lower plate, which was last between a and m', will have moved from there, and occupy the space between a and s, the portion of the lower plate r a being thenover the aperture L, and completely closing it, while the open part of the plate Q, Fig. 2, is under A, Fig. l. It will be noticed that, to secure this important result, one or the other plate should be entirely closed before the other commences to open. It is necessary that the upper plate in Fig. 2 should be solid from q to m, the dotted lines in Fig. 2 representing the aperture A, Fig. l, in the box-that is to p say, that, if the aperture A is three-eighths of an inch in width, the distance from q to m in Fig. 2 must be double that width, namely, threequarters of an inch, and the rod D on vthe out- 3 side of box the same length, with regard to l the lower plate. The box must be divided into exactly four equal parts, two parts, or onehalf to be occupied by the lower plate c c c, one-fourth by the lower aperture L, and the remaining fourth covered by the director G', but so placed as to allow the plate c c c to run easily in its groove just below it until it reaches s.A 1n the extremities of each arm of the lever E, at a and a',v is a slot, in which a portion of the plates penetrate, converting the rotary action of the lever into a movement in a horizontal plane. The hopper H need not be over ythree-quarters of an inchdeep, slanting on the four sides, so as to make an exit of not less than an inch on side view t, Fig. 1, and not more than one and a half on front view. To Athis should be attached doors, each the exact length of exit t. K is the final receptacle. ,The manner of using this invention is as follows: If used as a portable box, a strap is to be attached to the sides, which is thrown around the neck, and the box may hang either in front or on the side of the person collecting the fare. A passenger having taken his seat, the conductor approaching, and, after having made the correct change, holding the box by the handle, presents it to the passenger, at the same time pressing the thumb of same hand against D, which sends open part Q of the plate, Fig. 2, immediately under A in Fig. 1, and into which opening the passenger drops his fare. The fare descends either to rest 011 the lower plate for an instant, or in many 'cases directly in the box K, by the withdrawal of the lower plate from the aperture L to its p0- sition r n before the fare can descend to it.

What I' claim as my invention, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

The combination of the two plates or gates allel grooves, at the extremities of the lever E,

l by means of said lever, worked by the thumb- I bar D, and each moving simultaneously to the g other, and with respect to an orifice, A, in the ftop .of the box for the reception of fares, and to an under orifice, L, for the release of fares l.to their final receptacle K, so that at all times there shall be interposed one or the other of these sliding gates or plates between A and 'K, in the manner and for the purposes herein vset forth.

In witness hereof I have hereunto set my ,hand and seal this 23d day of February, 1874.

SAML. L. PHILLIPS. Witnesses:

FRED. KooNEs, W. H. GUNNELL. 

